The immune system protects the body from foreign invaders and diseased cells; but immune disorders, particularly those associated with T-cell tolerance, such as cancers, can wreak havoc. According to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, ten million people around the world were diagnosed with the cancer in 2000, and six million died from it. Moreover, statistics indicate that the cancer incidence rate is on the rise around the globe. In America, for example, projections suggest that fifty percent of those alive today will be diagnosed with some form of cancer at some point in their lives.
T-cell tolerance is also implicated in immune suppression that can be desirable, for example, in autoimmune diseases and in organ transplant situations, wherein an overactive immune response can cause great permanent damage to the afflicted individual and or donor organ. More specifically, autoimmune disorders are caused by dysfunctional immune responses directed against the body's own tissues, resulting in chronic, multisystem impairments that differ in clinical manifestations, course, and outcome. Autoimmune diseases are on the rise in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S. alone, some fifty million are affected, and autoimmune disease is one of the top ten causes of death in women under the age of 65, is the second highest cause of chronic illness, and the top cause of morbidity in women.
Hence, there remains an urgent need for compositions and approaches to treating T-cell tolerance mediated immune disorders.